Many homes and businesses receive media services through set-top boxes that are typically connected to television sets. Set-top boxes, also known as video signal access control systems, deliver multimedia content, such as music, video, and programming information, as well as provide interactive Internet connectivity. In general, the set-top box is an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) that receives and decodes (unscrambles and/or decompresses) digital television (DTV) and other multimedia transmissions sent as signals from a remote transmitter.
A traditional set-top box (hereinafter referred to as a “set-top box”) receives these signals via a closed, unidirectional network over wireline, fiber, hybrid-fiber coax (HFC), satellite, wireless, or other transmission medium. In unidirectional systems, set-top boxes are isolated such that each set-top box must perform all of the functions required to deliver the particular type of media to the consumer. Therefore, a set-top box can become obsolete when the demands of the delivered media and services exceed its communications, processing, or storage capabilities.
Often, there are two or more televisions in one home, each requiring a separate set-top box. Advances in technology continuously result in more sophisticated set-top boxes, and the price generally increases accordingly. Therefore, to maintain the same or similar levels of features in every room, an upgrade to one set-top box necessitates a costly upgrade to all set-top boxes in a home.
In addition to set-top boxes, many of the same homes and businesses utilize other devices that have communications, processing, and digital storage capabilities, such as personal computers and digital video recorders. These devices may have excess capacity that would be available for a resource sharing scheme. Furthermore, the consumer may possess multiple set-top boxes, each set-top box having varying capabilities that could be cooperatively utilized.
There is currently no system or method that enables a set-top box to utilize any resources possessed by a more sophisticated set-top box or by local devices that are connected or connectible via a network-like communications scheme. Therefore, what is needed is a system and method that will optimize the utilization of resources, and that will improve the economics and extend the useful life of set-top boxes.